BarBri Bar Review Hangout - February 2016 Exam Forum

[MTBike]

Those videos? Waste of time. The "fillable outlines" that accompany the lectures? BIGGEST PILES OF SHIT EVER. If you use those as your primary source of information (like they tell you to do) you will fail.

If what you say is true, I'm fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked

Lol ditto. I said fuck outloud when I read this. Although hard to believe as I scored 71 percentile on stimulated exam a month back and a 57/100 on refresher. I've been using short fill able outlines exclusively. Oh and fuck wills and trusts outline/teacher that Santa looking bitch can suck my dick.

DON'T PANIC GUYS. Everyone has a different method of studying, and as long as you're doing what works for you, it doesn't matter what works for everyone else.

I followed BarBri's stuff to a tee in July + did almost every single essay in the essay book. Didn't read CMR at all and relied entirely on lecture handouts. Stopped studying MBE questions 2 weeks before the test. Did no other external prep, not even flash cards. Wrote my own outlines and watched every single video and found them helpful.

Other people did exactly the opposite, and they passed too. Hell, I had a friend who literally didn't write any essays (just read through them the week before the exam) and hadn't even finished watching the lecture videos until 1.5 weeks before. He passed (but he's probably a genius and I don't recommend doing what he did). It's not about following X Y and Z steps, it's about figuring out how you learn best and doing what your brain needs to do in order to learn the material. Other people will invariably do it differently. That doesn't mean your way is wrong.

Maybe it's different in NY, but every. single. person. I know that took BARBRI and passed used the lecture notes exclusively and used the CMR sparingly... My sticking point on the exam was my MBE score and that came down to not reading the explanatory answers the first go around. I didn't know the pitfalls and patterns that the test uses. My essay scores were above average.

I think the lecture notes, at least for NY, hit the big topics that are likely to be tested in NY.

I should qualify my statement a little, the lecture notes are fine for the essays. They give you the broad picture and the big topics, and you're able to apply enough of the law in your essay to pass. My essay scores weren't a problem either.

But the MBE doesn't test the "big topics." The majority of the test seemed to test exceptions to exceptions, and the lecture outlines don't go into that much depth. And in a 50% MBE jurisdiction, this can be problematic.

This is a pretty common complaint I've heard from Barbri users, so I'm definitely not alone. But it is all about each person and how they study for sure, so ultimately do what works for you.

[THE_U]

Starting to think I have the flu.

[NY_Sea]

Starting to think I have the flu.

Damn that sucks dude... I'm trying to think of something you can take to try and cut the recovery time down a little. Usually I take Zicam when I start to feel coldish, and it helps a ton, but if you're thinking it's the flu I don't think Zicam will help.

[THE_U]

Starting to think I have the flu.

Damn that sucks dude... I'm trying to think of something you can take to try and cut the recovery time down a little. Usually I take Zicam when I start to feel coldish, and it helps a ton, but if you're thinking it's the flu I don't think Zicam will help.

I think I'm gonna go to an urgent care right now and at least try to rule out it being the flu.

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

I thought the July 2015 MBE was unbelievably hard. Everyone was mad at Barbri for not preparing us for that fucking onslaught. It really, really felt like the assholes at the NCBE did all they could to make sure the prep programs meant jack shit for their exam.

I am still trying to figure out if we were right or if we were all suffering from the phenomenon you just mentioned. Walking out and only remembering the hard questions. I can't compare it to other administrations because that's the only time I've taken the bar. I took the other NCBE practice exams and those felt easier.

BUT... I have researched this topic and it turns out the some MBE administrations are harder than others. And the NCBE scales the score to make up for these differences. Like harder exams where overall raw scores are lower will get a bigger boost than easier exams. And the NCBE says they have some "equalizer" questions, which are repeat questions (maybe the change the names of the parties) that they give year after year. And performance on those questions is how they gauge the difficulty of the overall exam. Which explains why they are so damn protective of their exam materials.

Same. I felt absolutely violated after July 2015. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't study or prepare for it. But I studied my FUCKING BALLS OFF for that test. It's the most effort i've ever put into anything in my life, and it didn't matter at all. As if I hadn't even opened the material.

Pretty demoralizing honestly. Knowing that I could put in that much effort, learn that much law, sacrifice months of my life and be told that because you didn't answer 2-3 more of these trick questions correctly that have nothing to do with anything, you aren't fit to be a lawyer. You don't even meet the "minimum competency" required.

And the people telling you that you aren't competent? They didn't even have to know civil procedure when they became lawyers.

Agree with every word. But it was probably a bad idea to read this, because now I'm freaking out that every question on the upcoming MBE will be written in heiroglyphics

[THE_U]

I thought the July 2015 MBE was unbelievably hard. Everyone was mad at Barbri for not preparing us for that fucking onslaught. It really, really felt like the assholes at the NCBE did all they could to make sure the prep programs meant jack shit for their exam.

I am still trying to figure out if we were right or if we were all suffering from the phenomenon you just mentioned. Walking out and only remembering the hard questions. I can't compare it to other administrations because that's the only time I've taken the bar. I took the other NCBE practice exams and those felt easier.

BUT... I have researched this topic and it turns out the some MBE administrations are harder than others. And the NCBE scales the score to make up for these differences. Like harder exams where overall raw scores are lower will get a bigger boost than easier exams. And the NCBE says they have some "equalizer" questions, which are repeat questions (maybe the change the names of the parties) that they give year after year. And performance on those questions is how they gauge the difficulty of the overall exam. Which explains why they are so damn protective of their exam materials.

Same. I felt absolutely violated after July 2015. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't study or prepare for it. But I studied my FUCKING BALLS OFF for that test. It's the most effort i've ever put into anything in my life, and it didn't matter at all. As if I hadn't even opened the material.

Pretty demoralizing honestly. Knowing that I could put in that much effort, learn that much law, sacrifice months of my life and be told that because you didn't answer 2-3 more of these trick questions correctly that have nothing to do with anything, you aren't fit to be a lawyer. You don't even meet the "minimum competency" required.

And the people telling you that you aren't competent? They didn't even have to know civil procedure when they became lawyers.

Agree with every word. But it was probably a bad idea to read this, because now I'm freaking out that every question on the upcoming MBE will be written in heiroglyphics

Don't freak out. It's much better that you know this going into it (and can thus mentally prepare), rather than being blindsided like we all were in July.

[MTBike]

Same. I felt absolutely violated after July 2015. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't study or prepare for it. But I studied my FUCKING BALLS OFF for that test. It's the most effort i've ever put into anything in my life, and it didn't matter at all. As if I hadn't even opened the material.

Pretty demoralizing honestly. Knowing that I could put in that much effort, learn that much law, sacrifice months of my life and be told that because you didn't answer 2-3 more of these trick questions correctly that have nothing to do with anything, you aren't fit to be a lawyer. You don't even meet the "minimum competency" required.

And the people telling you that you aren't competent? They didn't even have to know civil procedure when they became lawyers.

Agree with every word. But it was probably a bad idea to read this, because now I'm freaking out that every question on the upcoming MBE will be written in heiroglyphics

Don't freak out. It's much better that you know this going into it (and can thus mentally prepare), rather than being blindsided like we all were in July.

This is what I keep telling myself too.

[law732]

Just want to say that I'm looking forward to this being the last weekend we will ever have to consume ourselves with bar prep ever again. Cheers guys and girls

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

I thought the July 2015 MBE was unbelievably hard. Everyone was mad at Barbri for not preparing us for that fucking onslaught. It really, really felt like the assholes at the NCBE did all they could to make sure the prep programs meant jack shit for their exam.

I am still trying to figure out if we were right or if we were all suffering from the phenomenon you just mentioned. Walking out and only remembering the hard questions. I can't compare it to other administrations because that's the only time I've taken the bar. I took the other NCBE practice exams and those felt easier.

BUT... I have researched this topic and it turns out the some MBE administrations are harder than others. And the NCBE scales the score to make up for these differences. Like harder exams where overall raw scores are lower will get a bigger boost than easier exams. And the NCBE says they have some "equalizer" questions, which are repeat questions (maybe the change the names of the parties) that they give year after year. And performance on those questions is how they gauge the difficulty of the overall exam. Which explains why they are so damn protective of their exam materials.

Same. I felt absolutely violated after July 2015. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't study or prepare for it. But I studied my FUCKING BALLS OFF for that test. It's the most effort i've ever put into anything in my life, and it didn't matter at all. As if I hadn't even opened the material.

Pretty demoralizing honestly. Knowing that I could put in that much effort, learn that much law, sacrifice months of my life and be told that because you didn't answer 2-3 more of these trick questions correctly that have nothing to do with anything, you aren't fit to be a lawyer. You don't even meet the "minimum competency" required.

And the people telling you that you aren't competent? They didn't even have to know civil procedure when they became lawyers.

Agree with every word. But it was probably a bad idea to read this, because now I'm freaking out that every question on the upcoming MBE will be written in heiroglyphics

Don't freak out. It's much better that you know this going into it (and can thus mentally prepare), rather than being blindsided like we all were in July.

Agreed. I should also add that for all the shit we give Barbri, the simulated MBE was actually pretty good at predicting my score. They said expect it to go up 20 points or so. I was also around the same percentile range (low 20s). If they are correct this time around, I'm in autopass range (82nd %ile on Barbri MBE).

But for the sake of future takers, I think we should stop telling them that Barbri questions are harder.

[starry24]

Starting to think I have the flu.

Damn that sucks dude... I'm trying to think of something you can take to try and cut the recovery time down a little. Usually I take Zicam when I start to feel coldish, and it helps a ton, but if you're thinking it's the flu I don't think Zicam will help.

I think I'm gonna go to an urgent care right now and at least try to rule out it being the flu.

Ugh I am so sorry to hear this. Good call on going to Urgent Care. They can probably give you something now to nip it in the bud. Maybe a Z-pac? Or Tamiflu? If you're starting to feel sick now, don't panic. The MBE is not until Wednesday and whatever you have now will probably peak tomorrow/Monday and then it will start to get better (or maybe it won't peak at all if they can give you something now to take care of it). You have worked very hard and are very prepared and something like this right before the exam isn't going to keep you from passing. Months of preparation versus a few days of illness. It's a very minor thing in the grand scheme of your exam prep.

[MTBike]

Starting to think I have the flu.

Damn that sucks dude... I'm trying to think of something you can take to try and cut the recovery time down a little. Usually I take Zicam when I start to feel coldish, and it helps a ton, but if you're thinking it's the flu I don't think Zicam will help.

Oh and @THE_U, Zicam is amazing. I'd buy and take it right now even if you aren't sick.

[Gamecubesupreme]

But the MBE doesn't test the "big topics." The majority of the test seemed to test exceptions to exceptions, and the lecture outlines don't go into that much depth. And in a 50% MBE jurisdiction, this can be problematic.

This is very true.

However, part of practicing with MBE questions is to learn how to eliminate wrong answers. I've noticed my scores on the MBE started improving the moment I stopped trying to find the correct answer. Instead, I eliminate answers I know are wrong either because they are irrelevant or they stated the law incorrectly/too broadly. The credited response to tricky or hard questions is rarely the "right" legal response that jumps out at you, but it will always be better than the trap answers that only sound good, but doesn't actually answer the call of the question.

So even if the question is testing on an obscure law that you have never heard of, if you can eliminate answer choices that contain an obviously wrong law (which, based on my experience, tends to happen when the question at issue is purposefully obscure to most people), you should be able to get most questions down to a 50/50 choice.

But of course there will always be a couple MBE questions that is just baffling and makes no sense...my advice would be to not waste any time on them because you got lots of other questions worth exactly the same. Remember, you shouldn't be trying to ace the MBE. It's just not possible. The quicker you can accept the fact that you WILL get quite a few questions wrong, the better prepared you are. It's simply not cost-effective to spend 5 minutes pondering over a question and still get it wrong in the end. Even if you get it right, the time could have been used to answer 3 to 4 more questions.

[THE_U]

Starting to think I have the flu.

Damn that sucks dude... I'm trying to think of something you can take to try and cut the recovery time down a little. Usually I take Zicam when I start to feel coldish, and it helps a ton, but if you're thinking it's the flu I don't think Zicam will help.

Oh and @THE_U, Zicam is amazing. I'd buy and take it right now even if you aren't sick.

Annnnd it's the flu...

Panic starting to set in.

[MrMustache]

Starting to think I have the flu.

Damn that sucks dude... I'm trying to think of something you can take to try and cut the recovery time down a little. Usually I take Zicam when I start to feel coldish, and it helps a ton, but if you're thinking it's the flu I don't think Zicam will help.

Oh and @THE_U, Zicam is amazing. I'd buy and take it right now even if you aren't sick.

Annnnd it's the flu...

Panic starting to set in.

Bro, even if you got Ebola- YOU GOT THIS. Granted, it might suck a little more and be more of a pain in the ass, but again, YOU GOT THIS.

Edit:
Here' an old Russian cure for cold and flu:
Step 1. Take a scorching hot shower/bath
Step 2. Then drink a glass of vodka with a ton of red pepper
Step 3. Chase it with a fistful of garlic
Step 4. Put on warmest socks you have
Step 5. Go to sleep
Step 6. ???
Step 7. Wake up feeling fresh.

[Sue]

I thought the July 2015 MBE was unbelievably hard. Everyone was mad at Barbri for not preparing us for that fucking onslaught. It really, really felt like the assholes at the NCBE did all they could to make sure the prep programs meant jack shit for their exam.

I am still trying to figure out if we were right or if we were all suffering from the phenomenon you just mentioned. Walking out and only remembering the hard questions. I can't compare it to other administrations because that's the only time I've taken the bar. I took the other NCBE practice exams and those felt easier.

BUT... I have researched this topic and it turns out the some MBE administrations are harder than others. And the NCBE scales the score to make up for these differences. Like harder exams where overall raw scores are lower will get a bigger boost than easier exams. And the NCBE says they have some "equalizer" questions, which are repeat questions (maybe the change the names of the parties) that they give year after year. And performance on those questions is how they gauge the difficulty of the overall exam. Which explains why they are so damn protective of their exam materials.

Same. I felt absolutely violated after July 2015. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't study or prepare for it. But I studied my FUCKING BALLS OFF for that test. It's the most effort i've ever put into anything in my life, and it didn't matter at all. As if I hadn't even opened the material.

Pretty demoralizing honestly. Knowing that I could put in that much effort, learn that much law, sacrifice months of my life and be told that because you didn't answer 2-3 more of these trick questions correctly that have nothing to do with anything, you aren't fit to be a lawyer. You don't even meet the "minimum competency" required.

And the people telling you that you aren't competent? They didn't even have to know civil procedure when they became lawyers.

Agree with every word. But it was probably a bad idea to read this, because now I'm freaking out that every question on the upcoming MBE will be written in heiroglyphics

Don't freak out. It's much better that you know this going into it (and can thus mentally prepare), rather than being blindsided like we all were in July.

Agreed. I should also add that for all the shit we give Barbri, the simulated MBE was actually pretty good at predicting my score. They said expect it to go up 20 points or so. I was also around the same percentile range (low 20s). If they are correct this time around, I'm in autopass range (82nd %ile on Barbri MBE).

But for the sake of future takers, I think we should stop telling them that Barbri questions are harder.

What score is 82% percentile?

[jackbauer10]

Agreed. I should also add that for all the shit we give Barbri, the simulated MBE was actually pretty good at predicting my score. They said expect it to go up 20 points or so. I was also around the same percentile range (low 20s). If they are correct this time around, I'm in autopass range (82nd %ile on Barbri MBE).

But for the sake of future takers, I think we should stop telling them that Barbri questions are harder.

What score is 82% percentile?

Does ^this mean that our real MBE will hypothetically be 20 points higher than our simulated MBE? Or that with the weeks of studying following the simulated MBE, we should expect to have increased our raw score by 20 points? I guess I'm just confused as to what the expectation is...

[THE_U]

Starting to think I have the flu.

Damn that sucks dude... I'm trying to think of something you can take to try and cut the recovery time down a little. Usually I take Zicam when I start to feel coldish, and it helps a ton, but if you're thinking it's the flu I don't think Zicam will help.

Oh and @THE_U, Zicam is amazing. I'd buy and take it right now even if you aren't sick.

Annnnd it's the flu...

Panic starting to set in.

Bro, even if you got Ebola- YOU GOT THIS. Granted, it might suck a little more and be more of a pain in the ass, but again, YOU GOT THIS.

Edit:
Here' an old Russian cure for cold and flu:
Step 1. Take a scorching hot shower/bath
Step 2. Then drink a glass of vodka with a ton of red pepper
Step 3. Chase it with a fistful of garlic
Step 4. Put on warmest socks you have
Step 5. Go to sleep
Step 6. ???
Step 7. Wake up feeling fresh.

Lmao.

I'm about to take this Tamiflu the doctor prescribed, drink some NyQuil, and just try to sleep as much as possible until Wednesday. Hopefully I'm not rusty after not studying from now until then

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

Agreed. I should also add that for all the shit we give Barbri, the simulated MBE was actually pretty good at predicting my score. They said expect it to go up 20 points or so. I was also around the same percentile range (low 20s). If they are correct this time around, I'm in autopass range (82nd %ile on Barbri MBE).

But for the sake of future takers, I think we should stop telling them that Barbri questions are harder.

What score is 82% percentile?

Does ^this mean that our real MBE will hypothetically be 20 points higher than our simulated MBE? Or that with the weeks of studying following the simulated MBE, we should expect to have increased our raw score by 20 points? I guess I'm just confused as to what the expectation is...

Expect your real MBE score to be higher than your simulated score. 20 is a rough estimate. Part of this is because the real MBE is scaled, but the simulated is just your raw score.

[Sue]

Agreed. I should also add that for all the shit we give Barbri, the simulated MBE was actually pretty good at predicting my score. They said expect it to go up 20 points or so. I was also around the same percentile range (low 20s). If they are correct this time around, I'm in autopass range (82nd %ile on Barbri MBE).

But for the sake of future takers, I think we should stop telling them that Barbri questions are harder.

What score is 82% percentile?

Does ^this mean that our real MBE will hypothetically be 20 points higher than our simulated MBE? Or that with the weeks of studying following the simulated MBE, we should expect to have increased our raw score by 20 points? I guess I'm just confused as to what the expectation is...

I guess we are supposed to get better during few weeks from simulated to the real exam. But that is not always true. I got 126 raw from sim. MBE (140 scaled I think), but 130 scaled from the real thing.

[BrokenMouse]

.

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

What score is 82% percentile?

135/200

[NY_Sea]

Hey guys what does 142 raw MBE score translate to? I just finished the 200 question on the final Emanuel Strategies MBE book and although it is purported to be real MBE questions, it is abour 3-4 years old and I have no idea if it is reliably similar to current MBE questions.

I'd say 150ish... I'm looking to see if someone remembers how similar something like the 2013 OPE was to the read deal.

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

Hey guys what does 142 raw MBE score translate to? I just finished the 200 question on the final Emanuel Strategies MBE book and although it is purported to be real MBE questions, it is abour 3-4 years old and I have no idea if it is reliably similar to current MBE questions.

I'd say 150ish... I'm looking to see if someone remembers how similar something like the 2013 OPE was to the read deal.

I think higher. Barbri said that for last summer a raw 126 translated roughly to a scaled 142. No one knows for sure though.

[NY_Sea]

Hey guys what does 142 raw MBE score translate to? I just finished the 200 question on the final Emanuel Strategies MBE book and although it is purported to be real MBE questions, it is abour 3-4 years old and I have no idea if it is reliably similar to current MBE questions.

I'd say 150ish... I'm looking to see if someone remembers how similar something like the 2013 OPE was to the read deal.

I think higher. Barbri said that for last summer a raw 126 translated roughly to a scaled 142. No one knows for sure though.

Scale gets less as you have a higher raw score... They may add 16 points to a 126 raw, but they're not going to add 16 points to a 140 raw. I was being conservative with my guess.

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

Hey guys what does 142 raw MBE score translate to? I just finished the 200 question on the final Emanuel Strategies MBE book and although it is purported to be real MBE questions, it is abour 3-4 years old and I have no idea if it is reliably similar to current MBE questions.

I'd say 150ish... I'm looking to see if someone remembers how similar something like the 2013 OPE was to the read deal.

I think higher. Barbri said that for last summer a raw 126 translated roughly to a scaled 142. No one knows for sure though.

Scale gets less as you have a higher raw score... They may add 16 points to a 126 raw, but they're not going to add 16 points to a 140 raw. I was being conservative with my guess.

Oh. I hate the NCBE people.